Session 31: The Fall of Presidio

11th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna

As the Guardians re-enter Presidio through the south gate, they are being closed. The Orc army is here, approaching the north gate. Inside, the city is busy, people have a lot of things to do before the imminent battle. As the Guardians make their way through the crowd towards the palace, someone bumps into Henry and presses a note into his hand, before vanishing into the crowd.

Meet me at high-sun behind the Dancing Wyvern.
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The Guardians quickly figure that it must be El'Rull, the drow that they saved and then turned over to the authorities of Presidio.

They decided to head up to the palace and talk to the Lord General, but he is busy prepping the walls, and after waiting an hour for him, the Guardians head down to meet up with the drow.

At the appointed time, El'Rull meets with them, offering them an alliance:

You trusted me once before, I need you to trust me again. For unknown reasons, my matron mother wants to save your city. While she must have ulterior motives, surely you can agree that anything is better than being sacked by 350.000 orcs. I am here to help stop the invasion. And I need some help. You see, some of my allies have been discovered and killed. And I know of two sets of spies who must be disposed of immediately.

I will head to the palace and kill the spy there, while you track down the Red Horn, a devil-worshiping sect and deal with them.

Easier said than done, but the Guardians agree and decide to meet up again with El'Rull at dawn, once again behind the Dancing Wyvern.

As soon as the meeting is over, the Guardians start to investigate the Red Horn. After a couple of hours, they run into Jackson, a young cousin of the Vildar family (nobles):

Larissa? Yeah, can’t say I have been there, my allowance doesn’t quite measure up, but I have heard about her. One talented whore. She supposedly uses that tail in ways you can not imagine... She lives down by Artists’ Square. It’s a red-painted house. Hard to miss.

Arriving at Artists' Square a bit later, they find the red house with little trouble. The entrance is guarded, and they soon learn that Larissa expects gifts, just too meet her. After a lot of consideration and debate, Tic-Tac buys an expensive necklace, and they gain entrance.

There they encounter Larissa, a hauntingly beautiful tiefling woman, with a dragon-tattoo on her left thigh. She asks for 10.000 gold pieces to divulge the information she knows about the Red Horn. When pressed, she asks for 15.000. Obviously she does not like being bullied, but Tic-Tac doesn't like being extorted either, so he draws his dagger. The servant runs for help, and Larissa calls on her pet flesh golem hiding in the closet, which she has been given by a wizard suitor, some years ago.

The fight is hard and brutal. Larissa turns out to be handy with a dagger as well, and the golem proves to be a handful as well. Plan is to capture her alive, but unluckily, Tic-Tac's dagger ends up sticking out of her eye when the battle is over. Just as Larissa and the golem dies, the city guards arrive, and arrest the Guardians, who let them do it. The Guardians plead self defense and say they are on a mission from the Lord General, and that Larissa was part of a cult of devil summoners. Unfortunately for them, the guards can find no evidence thereof, and they are then escorted to one of the guard-houses on the palace grounds.

There they are placed in chains and under lockup in the mass. Soon the guards are joined by Court Mage De'Bent and High Priest Porash of Asmodeus. De'Bent does the interrogations, and Porash seems content to mostly listen in.

The Guardians tells their story again, mentioning Lady Victoria and Garix as witnesses. Unfortunaly, De'Bent returns from talking to Lady Victoria and claims she knows nothing about it, and Garix is nowhere to be found.

The city is under attack, and it is getting late. De'Bent leaves at the behest of High Priest Porash, and spured by his mental suggestion to Heian, the Guardians kill the guards and get their own weapons back. They part ways with Porash and sneak out of the guard-house, and immediately head to the stables to make a plan. Then they sneak up into the palace, in order to kill Victoria. She must be the spy El'Rull was talking about. Once inside the castle, they are discovered by a servant, but Henry quickly slays him. Alas, the alarm is raised, and soon the corridors are filled with palace guards looking for them.

The Guardians manage to dodge them all, and arrive in the throne room and the private area of the Lord General and his wife. There they find Lady Victoria, who is outraged. She has heard nothing from De'Bent, and never claimed not knowing the Guardians or not giving them a mission. She sends the Guardians to find De'Bent and deal with him.

They quickly navigate the palace and find the area belonging to the court wizard, but as they try to break into his room, Tic-Tac fails to deal with a magical trap properly and all the Guardians are roasted badly. De'Bent arrives, and a fight is on. While De'Bent certainly is powerful and the Guardians are wounded badly after the fire-trap-bomb, they have him in a corner and 4 against 1 is very effective. Soon he is knocked out and bound.

Then his apprentice arrive, saying that the city has fallen. The gates have been breached. Apparently a large group of devils were summoned near the main gate and they killed all the guards and opened the gate and the orcs just started to pour in.  

The Guardians decide to get the hell out of the castle, and move De'Bent down to the sewers to question him. Once awakened, he claims they are the traitors, that he did speak with Victoria. Not being able to verify this, due to the palace being either on lock-down or overrun, the Guardians kill off De'Bent and leave Presidio....

Vi spiller næste gang 1. maj. Håber I hyggede jer forleden, var en fed aften for mig som DM. Der skete en masse, også uventede ting.

Jeg sender nok en oversigt over muligheder på et tidspunkt, så vi kan få styr på, hvad der kan ske. Så kan vi tage en kort brainstorm over mail, hvis det er nødvendigt. Men generelt lød det som om, at I rykker sydpå for at finde det næste artifact.